SpokenWord Paris

Cara Cruickshank is a feminist educator, writer, and producer whose artistic journey began on Broadway at the age of ten in Les Misérables. She later founded The Listen to Me Theater Company in New York, where she developed a distinctive body of work at the intersection of poetry, theater, and women’s storytelling. Her acclaimed ensemble theater production, The Alchemy of Imperfection—a poetic exploration of the female experience—premiered in Paris before touring across the United States during the height of the #MeToo movement. The tour culminated in a sold-out performance in New York City featuring Broadway and Cirque du Soleil performers. Cara’s work has garnered the support of influential cultural figures, from Tupac Shakur’s mentor and manager, Leila Steinberg, to Woodstock producer and visionary Michael Lang, reinforcing her commitment to addressing urgent social and cultural issues through art. Her career has included collaborations with rap artists in inner-city Los Angeles, world slam poetry champions, and the founding of Café de la Culture, a contemporary salon philosophique centered on dialogue about social justice. Across continents, Cara has dedicated her work to uplifting silenced voices—from launching her first girls’ advocacy initiative in rural Brazil, to curating international panels on Black Lives Matter, to documenting the stories of LGBTQ refugees at the Mexican border, to facilitating diversity programs on university stages in Turkey and the United States, and communing with Indigenous grandmother circles internationally. Today, she leads Voices Unveiled, an underground online school providing feminist education and self-empowerment programs for Afghan women living under Taliban rule. Through her art and activism, Cara continues to challenge systems of oppression, elevate unheard voices, and inspire transformation. To learn more, visit https://voicesunveiled.org/.

Born in Nashville Tennessee in 1964, Robert Logue began writing poetry at age 16. He became involved in the exciting Nashville rock scene in the mid-80’s as a member of The Royal Court of China, which signed to A&M Records in 1987. The RCC toured with the Kinks, REO Soeedwagon and others, and in 1992 they recorded a single with Elvis Presley’s original bandmates, who reunited for the occasion for the first time in over 30 years. He also founded Southern gothic alt-folk group The Shakers, who released 2 records in the late 80’s/early 90’s. He self-published first book of poems, “4.4.4.”, in 1990 and subsequently issued two more collections, all out of print. His poems have appeared in various other books and anthologies over the years. Logue ran Black Raven Emporium from 2012-2014 ,a retail/bar business in east Nashville, which hosted open mic poetry twice a month. He has been published twice in LoveLove Magazine, including the new/current issue, which features poem “Perverted Heart”. His first feature at SpokenWord Paris was in 2022.

Originally from New York, Chris Czubay is a Paris-based prose writer, poet, and translator who studied English literature, creative writing, and Russian translation at CUNY Hunter College. His work centers on power, belonging, and intimacy across cultures, tracing how personal lives unfold within forces beyond the self. His current projects include a short story collection exploring tourism, migration, and life abroad; a poetry collection on displacement, movement, and the search for home; and two novels: one on grief, alternative family, and queer identity, and a dark comedy about a man uncovering his ancestral past. As a translator, his work spans poetry and prose. His first published book translation, Faster ThMoney (2025), by Rafał Juszczak and Katerina Romanova, examines how a Ukrainian bank navigated leadership and uncertainty at the onset of war.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko was first introduced on the BBC and to the literary world by the legendary James Meary Tambimuttu of Poetry London–-publisher of T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Henry Miller and Bob Dylan, to name a few.  After his death, it was his friend, the late great Kathleen Raine, who took an interest in her writing and encouraged her to publish.  A nominee for the Pushcart Prize, The Best of the Net, and a former San Francisco Poetry Slam Champion, she is widely published. She has been a featured guest at Shakespeare & Company, as well as performed or read in other literary venues in the City of Light and elsewhere. Her work has appeared in (among others) XXI Century World Literature (in which she represents France), Jazz and Literature and Maintenant : Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art archived at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. She is the recipient of two grants: one from Poets in Need, of which Michael (100 Thousand Poets for Change) Rothenberg was a co-founder; the second—the 2018 Generosity Award for her outstanding service to international writers through SpokenWord Paris where she is Poet in Residence. Her selected poems On the Way to Invisible was recently published by The Opiate Books. Her selected poems The Looking Glass is now available.

Photo by Sabine Dundure

Lisa Pasold is a poet & journalist originally from Tio’tia:ke/Montréal. Along with her five books, she has also written for TV, radio, theatre, and opera. Rodrigo Toscano says of her work: ‘Pasold’s sense of a what a “day” is/might be, what a “person” is, what a “circumstance” is, is up in the air. Pasold nets in the floating debris of social phenomenon into some of the richest poems and flash fiction pieces currently on offer.’ 

James E. Kenward is a poet and performer whose work has been featured on stage and broadcast by the BBC. His writing and performances have earned Time Out Critic’s Choice recognition and a Sony Academy Award nomination. He adapted the title poem of Key and Other Poems into a short film starring T. S. Eliot Prize-winner Joelle Taylor, who described working with him as “inspiring.” His film A Woman Like This won Best Experimental Film at the Mannheim Arts and Film Festival, while other films based on poems from Key and Other Poems,have been selected for festivals worldwide. Kenward is an accomplished voice artist, regularly narrating No.1-ranking productions for Audible, and performing with the Eight Cylinder Jazz Big Band. The Stage has praised his work, noting that “Kenward shines bright, and is destined for a great future.” Alongside his creative career, he works as a massage therapist in both clinical and private practice. His experience in the medical field informs and enriches his writing.

Rufo Quintavalle is a poet and an actor. He has taught creative writing at NYU Paris and is the author of a dozen collections of poetry, including Shelf, Weather Derivatives and I Love Paris. He was born in London, studied at Oxford and the University of Iowa and has lived in Paris for the last 20 years. His acting credits include Les Passagers de la nuit (in competition at the Berlin Film Festival in 2022), God Save the Tuche, Victor comme tout le monde and La Bataille de Gaulle. He was guest of honour of the Oulipo in 2015, was part of the team representing Paris at the final of the TransEurope Expression Poetry Slam in 2019 and has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Jason Stoneking is a poet, diarist, and performer originally from the United States, who has made his home in Paris. He has published several collections of poetry and essays, and has been performing his writing and music internationally for more than 30 years. Recently, his practice has concentrated on the creation of handwritten and site-specific texts. For his Bespoke Books series, he writes an entire unique book, in a single draft, for an individual reader, event, or residency. On April 13th, he will read a brand new Bespoke Book, written by hand, specifically for Spoken Word Paris.

Scott Hobbs Bourne is originally from North Carolina, the author of the novel, A Room With No Windows, a book of short stories, several journals and a trilogy of poems. His poetry has been put to score by American composer Shinji Eshima, and premiered at the San Francisco Opera in April of 2016. His most recent work, An Act of Imagination, is an illustrated book of poems for children. Scott lives in Paris with his wife and two children. His novel, Good Morning Captain, is the winner of the 2025 International Beverly Prize set to be published by Black Spring Press this coming year. See a full documentary about his work here: http://vimeo.com/64647082.

photo by Pierre Prospero

Jennifer K Dick is an author, translator, events organizer and academic with 4 books and 7 art/chapbooks most recently That Which I Touch Has No Name (BlackSpring Press Group, London, 2022), Meridian (artist book, Estepa Editions, Paris, 2022) & Lilith: A Novel in Fragments (Corrupt Books, Luxembourg, 2019). Her 5th collection of poems, Shelf Break, is forthcoming from BlazeVox in NYC 2026. She teaches at the Université de Haute Alsace-Mulhouse, France, curates the bilingual reading series Ivy Writers Paris and co-directs the Ecrire l’Art residency for French authors with La Kunsthalle Mulhouse Centre d’Art Contemporain which currently publishes one French poetry book annually as part of that project. Recent poems appear online in Arcturus (https://arcturusmag.com/2026/02/25/two-poems-jen-dick/ ) and Artsfuse (https://artsfuse.org/318134/weekly-feature-poetry-at-the-arts-fuse-133/ ), and in print in Gutter Magazine from Scotland (Feb issue).